Mysuru Dasara: Age-old cannon barrels offered puja

Mysuru: Even as the preparations for Dasara are going on at brisk pace in Mysuru, over 152-year-old seven brass cannon barrels were offered poojas on Mysuru Palace premises on Sunday. Mysuru City Police Commissioner Dr Chandragupta and DCP Dr A N Prakash Gowda participated in the pooja.

Traditionally 21 cannon shots will be fired from these brass barrels, after the Chief Minister offers floral tribute to Goddess Chamundeswari housed in the golden howdah, carried by Abhimanyu, during the Dasara Jumbo Savari procession on Vijayadashami day on October 26. According to veterinarian in-charge of Dasara elephants, Dr D N Nagaraj, the elephants will be familiarised with cannon fire shots from these brass barrels by City Armed Reserve cops for at least three rounds. The dates for this acclimatisation exercises are still not finalized, he said.

Meanwhile, according to sources in six Dasara sub committees which are being formed to finalise programmes for Dasara, they are planning to have five tableaux and 10 cultural troupes with (20 members in each troupe) 200 artists in Dasara Jumbo Savari procession this year.

Last year, Dasara procession which stretched for over one km featured 44 folk art cultural troupes from across the State and seven from other States with over 1,200 artists reflecting cultural ethos of the State and the nation. And those cultural troupes were blended with 39 colourful tableaux from all districts (depicting regional specialties) and various government departments (creating awareness on their popular programmes).

Also, this year cultural programmes in front of illuminated Mysuru Palace on the first eight days of Dasara from October 17, will be held between 7pm and 9pm. And one team led by artistes of national and international acclaim will perform. There will be Devi Sthuthi (musical concerts on Goddess) every evening at Chamundi Hills. The city will be illuminated on all ten days like every year.

So, owing to the pandemic situation, to avoid gathering of huge crowd, only major events of Dasara are being retained to keep up the tradition. Also, efforts are on by Mysuru district administration to ensure that though Dasara celebrations are simple, its glory is not lost. Every year at least 30,000 people gather at Dasara events on each day, besides over four lakh people who watch Dasara procession on Vijayadashami day.

Several additional attractions which were added over a period of time have been dropped this time. Usually, the 10-day long Dasara cultural extravaganza used to be packed with huge number of programmes at multiple venues in Mysuru. But this year, they have dropped cultural programmes at seven other venues, 90-day Dasara exhibition, Yuva Sambrama (inter university students' dance contests), Yuva Dasara (musical concerts by Bollywood and Sandalwood playback singers), food festival, film festival, flower show, heli ride (helicopter joyride to have aerial view of Mysuru), air show (by defence authorities), children's Dasara , Chinnara Dasara, women's Dasara, expo of products manufactured by women's self-help groups, heritage walk (along heritage buildings) with heritage attire, farmers' Dasara, Dasara sports, Dasara adventure sports, Dasara Darshana (wherein people from villages are brought to see Dasara), Chithrasanthe (expo of paintings), Hasiru Santhe (expo of organic products and other produces by farmers), hot air balloon, Mathsya Mela (fish expo), Kite Festival, Sooryaninda Chandranedege (nonstop music from sun rise to sun set at Mysuru palace premises) are all dropped. Usually, the curtains for the ten-day festivities are pulled with grand torchlight parade at Bannimantap grounds at night on 10th day of Dasara firework display and others. But this year, it has been dropped.